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Technically, the nation is using less water in 2005 than it did in 1975 despite a 30 percent population increase over that same time. Good news right? Of course. But, according to the same Geological Survey report, human consumption has also steadily increased over that time.

That can be expected considering the population increase, and Andrew Nusca and Larry Dignan of “Smart Planet” do a great job of breaking down the survey here. The bottom line is the downturn in water-use has stemmed from more effecient technologies in irrigation systems and power plants. This, of course, is great news but we can make it even better by continuing to do our part as consumers. It may not seem like a low flow shower head or reusing water from the dishes makes a difference, but it does. In fact, it makes a big difference.

The last 30 years are obviously a step in the right direction but water is more scarce now than ever and it’s going to take all of our efforts to continue to make a difference. It’s easy. Start here and spread the word.

The following is a guest blog feature courtesy of Conservation Covers…

To Pool Owners,

It always astounds me that the largest WASTES of water and electricity in the home are ignored. And by largest we really mean the largest – your pool.

By simply covering your pool you reduce pump and chemical usage by 75%, instantly reducing water evaporation to ZERO!! The swimming pools in California, Arizona and Texas lose its full volume of water every year through evaporation. A 20,000 gallon pool will evaporate 18,000 gallons throughout the year. Obviously, 18,000 gallons of water is extremely valuable yet its loss is usually ignored when we speak about droughts and water-saving measures.

Also ignored is the eight kilowatts of energy it takes to power the motors that filter a pool. Eight kilowatts a day is almost 3,000 kilowatts a year. By applying a pool cover, this kind of usage can be cut 70-80% because heat and light can’t enter the pool. That means the pool filter only needs to run for two hours a day instead of eight.

Pools are actually only used an average of one to two percent of all the hours in a year which means the potential for conservation is ENORMOUS! In Los Angeles alone, 2.7 billion gallons of water evaporate every year from pools and over a billion kilowatts are used for electricity. All these savings can be reached with a lightweight cover that can be removed in 3-4 minutes for swimming.

This is an important ecological matter that needs to be addressed. Everyone who is being asked to reduce their water usage by 15-20% could easily achieve that by simply covering your pool with a UV protected cover. Spread the word, and cover your pool!

Sincerely,

Conservation Covers

www.conservationcovers.com

Remember how your mom would ask if you’d jump off a bridge just because your friend did? Of course you wouldn’t, but now some scientists are betting that if a group of friends jumped off that bridge you might very well follow.

What does this have to do with water conservation? Well, conserving water is about adopting behaviors and it turns out it’s far easier to adopt behaviors as part of a group than on your own. As ASU professor, Robert Cialdini found out, simply changing the wording on hotel towel reuse signs can contribute to saving 7 trillion gallons of water - a theory dubbed “social proof.”

Not convinced? Check out the study here.

Managing a scarce resource like water is serious business.  But come on, educating on how to use water wisely can and should be fun, especially if you want your message to resonate with kids.

Here are a few examples from the Water - Use It Wisely campaign, and other great programs around the world.  We invite you to play along and share these wonderful online games and activities freely.  And if you know of a fun, interactive way to learn about water, please send us a comment and link to this blog.

“Tip Tank” Water Conservation Concentration Game Can you match the water-saving devices before the water runs out on our happy little gold fish?  Try to beat all three levels.  Highly recommended by Fast Company magazine.

H20house Water Saver Home Tour the California Urban Water Conservation Council’s interactive H20House and see where you can save along the way.

Bert & Phil’s Water Busters Play along as Bert the Salmon helps Phil Dumpster save water in his home in this interactive game brought to you by Seattle Public Utilities.

Project WET’s Water Festival One of the country’s premier water education organizations, Project WET launched its new interactive water festival.  It’s tremendous fun as kids learn about the water cycle and conservation.  It takes the program a bit to load, but while you wait you can try to catch water drops in a bucket.  Frustratingly fun!

The Water Family Game Now let’s go overseas to the United Kingdom, where you get to build your own family and learn how to save water around the home.  This is kind of a goofy, but informative game with simple and colorful clip-art-like animation.

Finally, we’ll go down under to the remarkable Mission H20 game produce by the amazing students at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia.  The storytelling, animation, music, and Aussie wit is found throughout this terrific online conservation game.  You can even win an iPod nano if you “choose to accept the mission.”

Got a game?  Lets us know in the comment section below.

Say hello to our guest blogger, Jered Love, from our friends at WaterDrop

Turn the tap on and let it run for about a minute. Now turn it off. You’ve just used two gallons of water. That might not seem like a lot to you, but you’ve just used the total daily amount of water used by an African citizen in a developing country.

You might think “wait a minute, that’s what they use for just drinking right?” Wrong. That’s the amount of water they use in one day for everything from drinking to bathing. Let’s put it in perspective, go take a shower for five minutes using a standard showerhead, you just about 35 to 50 gallons. You just used the same amount of water that five people in a developing country in Africa consume in one day just to survive.
Saving water here in North America doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re giving water to people in Africa and you are probably thinking, “Why do I need to save water when it’s not an issue here?” We need to recognize that it’s not only an issue elsewhere in the world; it’s a growing problem here. Five states in the US are currently undergoing a water crisis with more to follow. Water is being used without regard for the future. Many experts predict that wars will be fought over water in the future, just like wars are being fought over oil and food. Unlike many world issues that are happening like terrorism, economy, poverty, war and oil-related conflicts, the water crisis is a problem that you can make an impact in immediately simply by choosing to do so. Do you want to know how?

1. Keep Informed and Learn the Facts
The first step towards making a difference is to know what you’re making a difference in. There are countless resources out there with facts and figures that overwhelmingly state that the world is facing a global water crisis.

You can check out incredible organizations like the Water- Use It Wisely conservation campaign, Circle of Blue and WaterDrop.

Circle of Blue is an international network of leading journalists, scientists and communications designers dedicated towards finding and presenting information that highlights the global water crisis. Not only is it a resource site for global water news, but its stories have a human face. You can get involved by easily becoming a member and suggest stories that bring to light the urgent water crisis that heavily affects global poverty, sustainable development and political conflicts.http://www.circleofblue.org

The Water - Use It Wisely campaign knows the importance of water conservation and they know even more about how to get the message out. Water - Use It Wisely conservation campaign is an Arizona-based organization that is one of the world’s leading water conservation educational outreach programs. Many towns, cities, public and private organizations have adopted their campaign water conservation programs. Getting the word out is not their only focus, but they give you proactive ways to make a lasting difference. http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/

Do you want a one stop portal for up-to-date news on water-related issues? Then take a look at WaterDrop, a Vancouver-based organization dedicated to spreading the word on the water crisis in North America and the world. Not only do they provide news and information, but they highlight water crisis facts and figures, insightful interviews with movers and shakers in the water world, ways to get involved and people who make a difference. You can become a WaterDropper by becoming a Twitter member to receive up-to-date articles from their website and or become a member of their group on Facebook.

2. Join a Group.

Most of us have a Facebook page were we connect with others and share our hobbies, interests, likes and dislikes and even our daily activities. Why not join a group that states that you believe in something that makes a lasting impact on the entire world? Many water crisis organizations out there allow you to become a member of their group on Facebook. Not only does this allow you to connect with people worldwide that have the same desire for change, but it also gives notice to the people that you know personally that you are a part of something that can make an impact on the global water crisis. http://www.facebook.com

Nothing makes a bigger difference than by simply spreading the word. OneDrop, started by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Lileberte, is dedicated to fighting poverty around the world by ensuring that people across the globe have access to water. This program is designed to encourage millions of youth around the world to take action through investing their energy, willpower and creativity.

3. Reduce Your Water Use

Do you want to make an impact that you can immediately see? Than get involved in reducing your own water use right away. There are seemingly limitless resources out there on ways to save water, but check out this dynamic and inspiring initiative designed to help you make an immediate impact.  Go Blue is a collection of partners dedicated to increasing awareness about the growing pressure on fresh water supplies. With your help, you can assist in ensuring that water will be a resource that will be available now and for the future. On their website, they give you essential tips on decreasing daily water use in every area of your life.

Do you want to calculate your daily water use? Go Blue also provides a “Water Calculator” that allows you to figure out how much water you use on a daily basis. You may find the results shocking.

4. Inspire Others
People inspire people. We all want to be a part of something because it not only inspires us, but motivates us into action. Be a part of something that changes the world and be an inspiration.

You can become a water advocate with the World Water Day project.  World Water Day is an international day of observance and action designed to draw attention to the world water crisis. Not only can you create your own Water Advocate page, but you can use it to express your own concerns and inspire others around you.

5. Volunteer Your Time
Hope International, a Canadian-based nonprofit organization dedicated towards enabling people in developed countries to connect with people in the poorest parts of the world. One of their incredible projects is dedicated towards providing access to sustainable, clean water sources to the poorest people on earth. Hope International has projects in Afganistan, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethopia, Nepal, Philippines and Sudan. Hope International knows the importance of sustainable water resources for people.

According to Hope International, children living in the developing world are 520 times more likely to die from diarrheal diseases than children living in North America due to a lack of access to clean, sustainable water sources. You can join Hope’s cause by either joining to volunteer with their overseas programs or by donation.

Want to find a way to make an impact on the global water crisis in a hands-on way? Samaritan’s Purse runs a program called “Water for Life” that sends people across the world to implement their Household Water Program in communities that have little or no access to safe water. The program works closely with local partners within the community to develop the water program. The great thing about the program is that they strongly support a continuing relationship with the local community. Samaritan’s Purse has partnered with the CIDA since 1998 and currently has programs running in 19 countries around the world.

H2O Africa is a non-profit organization founded by Actor Matt Damon to raise awareness of clean water initiatives in Africa. It is an integral part the documentary, Running the Sahara. H2O Africa is dedicated to sustainability and integration, to create long-lasting programs that impact the entire community, from education to infrastructure development.

You can choose to make an immediate impact by choosing one of over a hundred specific projects to sponsor. These projects range from hand dug wells for clean water to deep well projects for entire communities. Each project will make an immediate impact in communities that range from the hundreds to the thousands.

These are only a few resources to get you started. There are countless organizations, companies and initiatives out there striving to spread the word, but they are useless and powerless unless they have help from the most important source: You. A difference can’t be made in the growing water crisis unless people begin to see a need and take action. The first step in changing the world begins with you deciding to change the world.

Do you have an organization, cause or water conservation campaign that you would like to share?  Please tell us about them in our comments.

A wise old marketing sage once asked me, “What’s a newspaper in business for?” “To deliver timely, accurate, and impartial news everyday to their subscribers,” I proudly responded as a young ad man trying to impress his mentor. “Wrong,” he said. “Newspapers are in the business to make money! If they’re not making money, they’re not delivering the news,” he snorted. Great point, and an even better lesson.

The next time you consider asking a for-profit company to sponsor your non-profit cause, first ask yourself the question, “What’s in it for them?” Sure, they want to be a good corporate citizen.  That’s a given.  What’s really at the crux of the question is how can engagement with you and your organization bump up their bottom line while doing good for the community?

You must get inside their heads before you can get inside their pockets.

- Park Howell

Acclaimed marketing professors Philip Kotler and Nancy Lee authored an insightful college textbook called, Corporate Social Responsibility, Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause. This book is filled with best practices on private/public partnerships with companies like The Home Depot, Ben & Jerry’s and Hewlett-Packard. Because it’s written for corporate managers in community relations and corporate giving and marketing, it offers non-profit leaders tremendous insight into how companies choose causes, and how to best align your mission with their mentality.

Here are ten recommendations from the final chapter: A Marketing Approach to Winning Corporate Funding and Support for Social Initiatives.

1. Start by developing a list of social issues that your organization or agency is currently charged with supporting and that would benefit from additional resources. Be specific.
2. Identify a short list of corporations that these social issues might have a connection with, something that relates to their business mission, products and services, customer base, employee passions, communities where they do business, and/or their corporate giving history.
3. Approach corporations and/or their communication agencies and find out more about their interests and experiences relative to supporting social initiatives.
4. Listen to their business needs.
5. Share with them the social issues your organization supports, the initiatives you are considering or engaged in, and your strengths and resources. Find out which, if any, they find most appealing.
6. Prepare and submit a proposal to those corporations most interested in your social issues. Present several optional initiatives for potential support, ones that are the best match for their stated business and marketing needs.
7. Participate in developing an implementation plan.
8. Offer to handle as much of the administrative legwork as possible.
9. Assist in measuring and reporting outcomes.
10. Provide recognition for the corporation’s contribution in ways preferred by the company.

If you have thoughts on how to approach companies to support your cause, or a terrific case study you’d like to share, please do so in the comment box below.